DO QUANG KHANG MS.

TEFL
READING: Cross text multiple matching
Travel and travel writing
Four writers comment on the experience of travel and the function of travel writing

A Naturally, as a travel writer; I had read much in this genre before embarking on my own career. Early on, it was
the unpretentious sort of guide book with recommendations for budget accommodation and quirky entries on
outlandish local customs. I travelled and took numerous pictures of folk I encountered and landscapes I found
compelling. Certainly many of my jaunts were eye-opening experiences and I like to think they had a constructive
effect on my character. I must concede, however, that this kind of book has probably led to the spoiling of many
'off the beaten track' village and the displacement of its inhabitants. later, I began to read more reflective volumes
for the chance to explore without being there, and this is the goal of true travel writing, I believe. If the description
allows readers that intense sensory experience of local spices, of the taste of the air, of the glare of the sun on
extraordinary architecture, then its mission is fulfilled.

B Shortly before finishing this book, I was in the remote Egyptian village of El Nazla, captivated by the hands of
an elderly craftsman turning a grey lump of clay into a perfectly proportioned pot. It was a transformation needing
to be witnessed wholly by the eye and processed through imagination, not merely documented by the intrusive
camera lens. As I watched the mud take shape, I could sense the ancestral connection, and knew that this was a
skill passed down through countless generations. It is moments like these when any scepticism regarding the
notion that travel broadens the mind is swiftly put down - moments that make me need to put pen to paper and
encourage others to set forth and experience other worlds firsthand. This is a key reason for the existence of travel
writing. Even a basic guidebook has the potential to encourage people to visit remote locations — their money is
often crucial to the sustaining of family- run industry.

C Now that nearly every inch of our planet has been televised, it might be thought that the works of travel writers
must become an obsolete genre. Certainly we do not need to be informed about what foreign places look like. But
what they feel like is another matter entirely. A travel writer records the impressions of a temple or a fish' market
on their own self, expressing the experience, not the occurrence. It is subjective, and therefore, whether or not the
location is a saturated tourist destination or a far-flung polar town, the experience is individual. Yet the reader has
empathy with these feelings, and that is, and always has been, the point of true travel writing. I am not referring to
guide books, which encourage the exploitation of already-underprivileged groups. Real travel is about approaching
experience with the excitement of a newcomer and gaining insight and maturity from it. And unlike some in the
field, bear no hostility towards the taking of simple snaps; these images we later peruse at our leisure are souvenirs
doing no harm to the environment.

D Travel writing, even at its most well-intentioned, can never claim more than entertainment as its end goal. But it
is since the 1960s that an epidemic of the so-called guidebook has spread to library shelves and more recently onto
websites. Professing to enlighten the amateur traveller, in fact they encourage little interaction that will benefit the
long-established inhabitants subsisting beyond the boundaries of tourist resorts, places which often take away
livelihoods when land and other resources become inaccessible. Does travel expand one's own horizons? For
many, it merely serves to validate existing prejudices; the local cuisine is indeed unpalatable, the language
unfathomable. Even so, digital recording devices are ubiquitous, flashing at people who have no say in the matter,
and whose sense of offence is ignored for the sake of a memento.
DO QUANG KHANG MS.TEFL

Which writer
Q1. has a different opinion from the others on the effect of travel on people
personal development?
Q2. shares writer B's opinion of the validity of travel photography?
Q4. expresses an opposing view to writer C regarding the way in which a
genre of travel writing impacts on local communities?
Q5. takes a similar view to writer C on the purpose of travel writing?

Which writer
Q1. has a different opinion from the others on the effect of travel on people
personal development?
Q2. shares writer B's opinion of the validity of travel photography?
Q4. expresses an opposing view to writer C regarding the way in which a
genre of travel writing impacts on local communities?
Q5. takes a similar view to writer C on the purpose of travel writing?
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